The present invention relates to a rear vehicle body structure for pickup trucks, more particularly, to a rear vehicle body structure for pickup trucks based on a passenger car manufactured on the basis of cars.
The present application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-384913, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In response to the diversification of needs of consumers, car manufacturers have produced more and more pickup trucks based on a passenger car and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) based on a passenger car or a truck in recent years, as these vehicles offer both the practicality of trucks with a high cargo capacity and the comfort of passenger cars. The pickup trucks based on a passenger car (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cpick-upsxe2x80x9d) have a monocoque vehicle body similar to that of the passenger cars unlike recreational vehicles (RVs) which have a frame structure. Therefore, the pick-ups normally have the same structures for a rear wheel apron and a fuel piping system accommodated therein as the passenger car (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9ccarxe2x80x9d), that is, the pick-ups take a form of a car-like vehicle without a roof of a luggage compartment thereof.
Since the pick-ups have no roof over their cargo bed in the rear vehicle body, the pick-ups are often provided with reinforcing guard bars in a front part of the cargo bed for securing enough rigidity of the open cargo bed. Even so, since priority is usually given to lower production cost and lighter weight of the vehicle, it is not always the case that sufficiently strong is the linking strength between the rear wheel apron and the rear floor panel making up the cargo bed. In that case, the pick-ups cannot have the same vehicle body rigidity as the cars on which the pick-ups are based, and the low rigidity around the rear wheel apron results in higher vibration and noise levels in comparison with the cars.
If the parts in and around the rear wheel apron have the low rigidity, they will readily deform along with the cargo bed in the event of a rear impact collision, and in some cases the rear impact collision may damage a part of the fuel piping system installed inside the rear wheel apron.
Another problem to be taken into account is that the pick-ups are likely to accommodate high or heavy cargo, and an anchoring hook or a member for dividing the cargo bed into upper and lower sections may be equipped in or placed on the rear wheel apron. Thus, the rear wheel apron parts need to be reinforced for this reason, too.
These problems could be addressed by increasing a plate thickness of the floor panel of the bed or by incorporating reinforcements for the rear wheel apron parts to improve the rigidity of the vehicle body. However, an increase in the rigidity of the entire vehicle against front and rear impact is undesirable because, if the cargo bed does not buckle in a rear impact collision, the impact load may cause much damage to the passengers since collision energy can not be absorbed by the cargo bed.
The present invention has been devised to resolve the problems encountered by a conventional rear vehicle body structure for pickup trucks. An object of the present invention is to provide a rear vehicle body structure for the pickup trucks, with which linking strength between a rear wheel apron and a rear floor panel is increased without adding any major change in the body design. The rear vehicle body structure is to improve the rigidity of the parts in and around the rear wheel apron while allowing the vehicle body to readily deform in the event of a rear impact collision, and to be capable of protecting fuel piping systems from the impact of collision.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a rear vehicle body structure of a pickup truck having a cargo bed, including a rear floor panel defining a horizontal plane of the cargo bed, a rear wheel apron disposed on a side of the rear floor panel, a fuel piping system accommodated in the rear wheel apron, parts of the fuel piping system being led out to a side of the cargo bed to be installed therealong, and a first reinforcing member jointed to the rear wheel apron for covering a vicinity of a portion of the rear wheel apron at which the part of the fuel piping system is led out to the side of the cargo bed, including a flange formed by bending a lower end portion of the first reinforcing member toward a center of the vehicle body. The rear floor panel and the rear wheel apron are jointed together, with a side edge portion of the rear floor panel being superposed upon the flange.
Another feature of the present invention is that the structure further includes a plate-like second reinforcing member jointed to the rear wheel apron ahead of and above the first reinforcing member, and a bracket having a luggage anchoring hook arranged between the first and second reinforcing members, with a lower end portion of the bracket being fastened to the first reinforcing member and an upper end portion thereof being fastened to the second reinforcing member.
Yet another feature of the present invention is that a lowermost edge of the second reinforcing member is positioned above an uppermost edge of the first reinforcing member.